


Deference

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Anal Sex, Bad Puns, Dominance, M/M, Perspiration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:21:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you telling me I have to kill you for making stupid horse puns?" Karkat asks dryly, standing up and walking several steps from the bed. "I mean they're incredibly stupid, but still."<br/>"If you canter accept them, yes, but trot if you tolerate my behoofior," Equius says with a remarkably straight face despite his perspiration.</p>
<p>For the kinkmeme: Equius being awkwardly dominated whilst destroying a bed, sweating excessively, and making astonishing amounts of stupid puns. Heavily revised and extended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deference

**Author's Note:**

> Some parts are rewritten entirely, others are revised, still more are added in; throughout all of this, I could figure out no way to add the phrase "jockeying for position." Damn it.

For all that everyone mocks Karkat's leadership abilities, Equius included, the highblood cannot fault him on availability. It takes only one request for his time to bring Karkat into the empty corridor, angry but attentive as ever. He stands against the wall and stares skeptically up at Equius, rigid and formal in the center of the hallway.

"Because others are attempting..." Equius begins awkwardly, looking fixedly over Karkat's head while grimacing, "I thought that perhaps..."

"What."

"Despite the difference in class," he starts again, but immediately realizes that even bringing up the concept of caste is a terrible mistake. Sweat trickles down his arms as he swallows hard. "This is...so lewd."

"What the hell," Karkat snaps as he crosses his arms uncomfortably, "you haven't even gotten to the point and you're creeping me out. Spit it out."

"S-such uncouth language. Though it behooves one of your station-"

"Get to the point or shut up, dipshit!" His tone is so angry, so imperative, that Equius reflexively straightens his posture as sweat pours down his face. "Oh god, that wasn't an order, okay? Stop getting off on it, _that's_ a fucking order."

"Y-Yes, I shall cease bridling," Equius stammers, tilting his head up a little more to avoid looking at Karkat. "But if you were to issue orders to me...if you were amenable to..." He swallows again despite his dry mouth before he can continue, hearing the soft plink of his own sweat on the metal floor. "Some sort of red arrangement, perhaps I could...be subdued to such a scandalous situation. Despite my superior blood."

He stares at a point high on the wall for a long moment, but when no response comes he slowly lowers his head to look down at the smaller troll. Karkat gapes up at him, rage and disgust vying for his expression. Rage, being on its home ground, quickly wins.

"Wait, you're seriously talking down to me in the middle of a red solicitation? You're making a fucking lake where you stand and you smell like a goddamn filthy unwashed jockstrap and you're talking down to me?" he exclaims, voice starting low and intense but ending on a sharp, high note. "You even included a horse pun, you unbelievable asshole!" he continues, but suddenly stops and starts to laugh softly, harshly. "Wait, maybe this is actually your plan. Maybe you want to shatter my pelvis into jagged chunks and paralyze me for life to restore the status quo! Or you could sever my bulge with your mouthful of broken razor sharp fangs, or fucking break it off in yourself if you got a little tense, whichever. Sounds great. Sign me up!"

"I would not hurt-" Equius begins with slightly wounded pride, but Karkat waves a hand dismissively, one corner of his mouth wryly quirking up.

"Oh wait, we wouldn't actually get that far because you'd snap my spine and three ribs trying to hug me or some shit. I would just lie there on the floor cursing and cursing and cursing you with my collapsed breathing system and you would say 'oh fiddlesticks' and drown me with sweat by standing over me and the last thing I would see, the last thing I would fucking know, would be that you got off on that because you're a goddamn freak. No. No, no, no. No."

Equius wholeheartedly expects that being berated by a lowblood will excite him, thinking back fondly on the delights of being slapped around by Aradia, but Karkat's unbroken disgusted rage at the idea is not so much arousing as crushing; unwanted hatred based not on anything he did, but on everything he is. Karkat, coming down from the heights of his rage to the well-worn usual plateau of his rage, is as surprised as Equius at the twin blue lines of tears on the highblood's face.

"What the hell, are you crying?"

"Nay," Equius says resolutely, pushing out his lower lip slightly and setting his jaw.

"You can't lose extra water, you'll die of dehydration or some shit. I'm ordering you to stop."

"I am quite sound," Equius sniffles.

"No, shut up. Stop fucking crying. It'll mess up your throat and I'll have to hear you say you're a little hoarse and that will be a goddamn terrible pun so stop it. Why are you even this upset?" Karkat mumbles uncomfortably, shifting his feet. "By your asinine standards I'm not worth it."

"Yes, you aren't," Equius agrees with perfect equanimity.

"What? Fuck you!"

"But your qualities of leadership are...compelling...despite your status," he continues, wiping his other eye with a frown. "And it is so difficult in this place to meet...basic needs. To be adequately commanded."

"Wait, so you just want someone to order you around? You don't need a matesprit or a kismesis for that, dipshit. Anyone can do that. Literally. Anyone."

"But to ask such a thing in person without making the proper arrangements, even temporarily. It would be so...depraved," Equius protests, then freezes and begins to perspire anew.

"I can't believe I'm even asking this," Karkat mumbles after a minute of uncomfortably watching the sweat pour off him, "but what would I actually be doing. Not as a matesprit," he adds, shuddering. "Just if I took temporary pity on you. As your leader. To keep you functional."

"Oh," he says in shock, shuffling his metal shoes on the metal floor and inadvertently making a hideous din. "Being pitied by such a low-"

"I'm leaving you in this hallway in five seconds to die of thirst if you don't spit it out. Five, four, three-"

"Tell me what you want me to do," Equius tells him, the words escaping in one breath. "Anything." Karkat gives him a long, appraising look, examining him, and the indignity of being openly stared at by someone with no place in society makes the highblood dizzy with excitement.

"Fine. Go to the ablution trap first, you smell disgusting."

* * *

The order is less than exciting, but Equius obeys it in the hopes of making a good impression. He is slightly disappointed that Karkat fails to ensure by watching that he performs satisfactorily, instead choosing to stay in his own respiteblock with his computer, but Equius rationalizes that naturally a lowblood would not understand the intricacies of such commands. Yet as Equius enters the room and golden eyes sweep over him again, over the towel wrapped around his hips and the damp hair hanging over his shoulders, it is still enough to bring a blue flush and a faint sheen of perspiration to his face.

"Probably for the first time ever," Karkat says from the bed, closing the lid of his husktop, "you're using a towel right."

"I hope that it pleases you," he answers, standing fully upright to show off his developed musculature in the hopes that his superior mangrit will be noted.

"Fuck no," Karkat mutters disappointingly.

"So you are difficult to please?" Equius asks, hopeful anyway as he approaches the bed. "What can I do?"

"That's what I'm wondering," Karkat mumbles, setting the husktop on the floor. It scuttles away to a corner and folds its legs in sleep mode. "What can I even..."

"You must not shy away," Equius reprimands him suddenly. "You must take the reins." Karkat stares at him in disbelief for a second.

"Goddamn it," he finally snaps, "get over here and sit down, that's order one. Order two is cut out the goddamn horse puns before I cull you for glue. Order three is _don't fucking talk back to me when I'm giving you orders_."

"Forgive me for my insubordination," Equius says excitedly, sitting down as his perspiration breaks out in earnest. "You must punish me for this transgression."

"Oh, I see what your stupid game is. Fine, I'll do it anyway just to spite you. What's the customary punishment?"

"Usually death," Equius answers promptly. "As you know, the most adequate Alternian punishment for nearly everything is-"

"Are you telling me I have to kill you for making stupid horse puns?" Karkat asks dryly, standing up and walking several steps from the bed. "I mean they're incredibly stupid, but still."

"If you canter accept them, yes, but trot if you tolerate my behoofior," Equius says with a remarkably straight face, despite his perspiration. Karkat whirls around, eyes blazing.

"Okay, that's it, you're fucking getting it now!" he snaps, shoving Equius's shoulders hard, and although normally Equius would stare blankly at him without moving he allows himself to collapse backward on the bed. He holds back a smile as Karkat's hands lock around his unresisting throat, the lowblood straddling his powerful hips and leaning forward to reach. "God, you're actually slippery. Ugh."

"Apologies for saddling you with this."

"How are you even talking right now?" Karkat presses his thumbs in harder, scowling.

"Well you see I am of fine mettle and quite spirited - hrrk!" His eyes roll back in delight as Karkat is finally provoked to the right degree of squeezing.

"There! Goddamn," he pants. His eyes widen after a few moments, hands loosening as sweat runs over his fingers. Equius gasps reflexively, drawing in a ragged breath. "Oh gross, this really is doing it for - what the fuck is that!" he snaps as he looks down behind himself.

"In all ways I am exceptionally strong," Equius tells him informatively, flushing a deeper blue as the blood rushes back to his head.

"Strong nothing, it's fucking hu - well I guess it's nothing special for a freak," Karkat says abruptly, voice regaining its normal timbre as he pointedly looks away from the dark blue bulge arcing up behind him, directing his gaze at the ceiling for a moment with extreme pathos. "What the fuck do you expect me to do with that."

"I presume nothing," Equius responds, looking at him attentively. "You decide what is to be done with it. With me."

"Right," Karkat agrees uncomfortably. "So, uh. What can I actually do to you?"

"Anything."

"I mean without you snapping my bulge off," he retorts, stripping off his shirt. Equius notes with silent disdain his slim frame, small and wiry, more suited to quickness than strength. "And there's no fucking way I'm taking that thing."

"I can remain motionless. I am careful with my teeth." Karkat rolls to the side, lying on his back as he slides his pants down his narrow hips, looking over at the highblood with a frown.

"How careful?" he asks, kicking them off and palming his own half-hard bulge self-consciously, stroking it with a nervous hand. Equius regards the brighter color and smaller size of it with secret satisfaction. "Actually fuck it, I'm not even risking that. If I stick this in you, am I losing it?"

"By no means," Equius reassures him, blushing deep blue to the tips of his ears. "I have trained my body."

"So you won't break my fingers either."

"Nay."

"What did I tell you about puns?" Karkat sighs irritably as he gets out of bed, sliding a hand under the pillow to retrieve a small bottle. "Roll over, I don't want you watching me." Fervently as Equius misses the strangulation, this new prospect makes him roll instantly, knees planted far apart on the bed as he offers himself up to the troll standing behind him. Sweat courses freely down his face as slick fingers move over his exposed nook, one slipping carefully inside. "Goddamn. You're so fucking sweaty I practically don't need this."

"This is so-" Equius begins in a shaking voice, but before he can explain the depravity of being used by someone with no social standing, Karkat slides another finger in. "Oh. Depraved," he finishes anyway.

"Gross," Karkat mutters as a fresh wave of sweat dampens the bed. "And if you start calling me 'lowblood' while I'm trying to pity you, so help me god, they'll never find the body."

"Understood," Equius agrees, overwhelmed by the sense of surrender to someone infinitely lower than himself. By resisting he could shatter Karkat's fingers, but as he revels in the sense of being used by the unworthy he puts up no resistance at all.

"You really are relaxed."

"I train," he explains vaguely, resting his weight on one forearm as he reaches back to stroke his own bulge.

"Did I tell you to touch that?" Karkat asks abruptly, fingers crooking to press into the ridges of the internal pleasure receptors. Equius stiffens in surprise, letting go of the bulge, curling both hands tightly in the sheets.

"N-nay," he answers, the word erupting in a half-choked moan.

"Yeah, you think I don't know how this actually works." Karkat shoves him forward and he obligingly rests his face on the bed, turning his head sideways and staring at the wall as excitement sets his heart pounding. "But I do. I'm the one giving the fucking orders," Karkat continues, awkward but forceful. "You don't get it both ways, you don't do whatever the fuck you please." With his other hand he yanks the crumpled towel away, casting it to the floor.

"Oh," Equius responds in shock at Karkat's sudden display of dominance, fretfully tearing the sheets to shreds with twitches of his hands as the smaller troll fingers him. "O-oh my," he adds, a shudder coursing through his body.

"You're well-trained, right?" Karkat asks.

"Oh, yes."

"You don't do anything unless I order it," he commands with increasing confidence, working a third digit in. Equius fights to stay relaxed as the fingering continues, heat and pressure building in his stomach as his neglected bulge throbs between his legs. "You don't get off until I tell you to."

"Yes-"

"So now," Karkat goes on, interrupting him with a condescending dismissiveness that makes him whimper, "beg for what you want."

"Please," he whines, tearing the shreds of the sheet into smaller shreds, hips jerking slightly.

"Please what?"

"P-please," he chokes, digging his fingers into the mattress and instantly breaking through. "Make use of me."

"What's that?" Karkat asks carelessly, rubbing the receptors hard as Equius curls trembling fingers around the metal bedsprings and groans, ecstatic to be demeaned and so casually disregarded. "Did you say something?"

"Yes," he stammers, quaking and half-thrusting with every careless pass of the fingertips over his pulsing receptors.

"Come on," Karkat murmurs, quickly stroking his own bulge with the other hand. "I can't hear you."

"I asked politely," he enunciates with an effort, "if-"

"Forget it," Karkat interrupts, pulling the digits out with an abruptness that leaves Equius achingly empty, draws a half-muffled groan from his throat and a fresh wave of sweat from his body. "It doesn't matter. I'll decide what you want."

"O-oh," Equius gasps in a haze of arousal, astonished at being understood. Thin fingers dig into his hips, holding him, and the feeling of Karkat's bulge pressing against his spread, receptive nook makes him shudder with mingled highblooded disgust and violent need.

"If you need me to stop," Karkat says abruptly, "for anything, tell me." He pauses for a moment, hands tensing and relaxing. "Answer me."

"Yes," Equius acknowledges impatiently, motionless in anticipation.

"Don't pull any stupid bullshit and do things you don't want to," Karkat continues, almost sympathetic in a way that irritates Equius more than it soothes him. "Don't ignore your limits like I give a fuck how stoic or impressive or _strong_ you are, because if you asked me to measure how many fucks I give about it I wouldn't even need your tiny fucking thinkpan to carry them around in."

"I understand," he grates out in frustration, unable to ask Karkat to continue.

"I know you want to be used by me," Karkat informs him as he strains not to push back, knowing the hands on his hips are as powerless to hold him in place as he is powerless to resist the will behind them. "You want to be my pail." He takes in a shuddering breath to agree despite his disgust, would agree in that moment with anything that came from Karkat's lips, and the instant the word leaves his mouth Karkat slides into him with a grunt. Equius's remaining breath is forced back out in a low keening as he claws deeper into the bed.

Even without a hand on his bulge Equius nearly loses it at once, his entire body jerking reflexively. Karkat lets out a hiss as muscle nearly constricts with terrible force around him. Mangling bedsprings in his quivering fingers, Equius relaxes to let the smaller troll thrust into him, harsh pants already escaping his mouth. His ignored bulge moves heavy and aching with each snap of Karkat's hips and he shudders with frustration, holding himself motionless and obedient as sweat courses down its length, gritting his teeth so hard that he is nearly certain he feels one crack.

"Oh god," Karkat pants in disgust as his hands are soaked in sweat again. "Ugh."

"I, I cannot hold, I must-" Equius groans, trembling and straining as the head of Karkat's bulge rubs his already overstimulated receptors with each push.

"You'll fucking wait for it," snaps Karkat. Equius shudders in mixed revulsion and elation, straining in a delirious fugue to hold himself back as Karkat thrusts into him harder, quicker, obviously close to finishing already. "This is what you wanted, right?" Karkat asks suddenly, all breathless solicitude amidst the soft slap of flesh on flesh, and this is worse yet because Equius is fully aware that the real sentiment behind the words is nothing of the sort. Karkat's tone is as thoughtful as his hands and body are not. The juxtaposition sends a bolt of excitement straight to Equius's bulge.

"Oh _fiddlesticks_ ," he groans, shivering as he presses his face into the mattress.

"Answer me," Karkat commands with a faint edge in his voice, fully confident at last, sweat dripping from his own hair as his fingers dig into Equius's hips.

"Yes," Equius manages, breath escaping him in a wave when he turns his head.

"So, what did you want?" Karkat asks, leaning over, slowing his motions to delay his own climax.

"I-" He closes his eyes tightly at the feeling of Karkat's sweat mingling with his own, revolted and impossibly excited as his bulge sways unstimulated beneath him. "Tell me what I want."

"Oh - right," Karkat breathes, sounding vaguely surprised. "You want me to fill you up."

"Oh," Equius scarcely manages to whine, unable to disagree but scarcely able to process something so unspeakable, paralyzed as genetic material leaks slowly from his neglected bulge. The repeated, hard rub of the bulge over his receptors milks the blue fluid slowly out of him, his body quaking as sweat pours freely on the bed. Lost in quaking spasms, he is incapable of deciding whether he wants Karkat to notice his loss of control or not.

"Fill you up with that color you hate," Karkat continues, speeding up again and evoking another desperate whine as Equius balances on the edge. This is far worse than the previous times, his entire being torn between the need to deny himself and the need to finish, desperately holding back under the pressure as his swaying bulge throbs and aches for release. "That's what you want." If Karkat says anything more, it goes unheard through the rush of blood in his head and the sound of his voice agreeing as though from somewhere beneath him.

Just as he is certain that Karkat will outlast, he feels a hot rush of genetic material gushing out around the bulge inside him and nearly faints at the unspeakable depravity of being filled with the red fluid, his eyes rolling back momentarily as Karkat lets out a slow, shuddering exhalation and pulls slowly back. Equius emits an unintelligible sound of shock.

"You got what you wanted," Karkat finally murmurs. "Get yourself off."

"Yes," Equius gasps, instantly seizing his long-neglected bulge with a shaking hand. Karkat's genetic material leaks from his nook, slicking his strokes before he rolls over on his back, and his long denial combined with the sight of the bright red fluid on his own hand and bulge when he looks down set him off with such intensity that again he nearly passes out in ecstatic revulsion.

"Holy shit," Karkat mumbles, taking a defensive step back as Equius holds a trembling hand over his own bulge. "You're making me a new one of these weird cocoons later," he adds as blue fluid flows freely on the soaked sheets, mingling with red to produce a bright violet. Equius is too far gone in the intensity of his long-delayed climax to hear him, bucking into his own hand and emitting one last wave of sweat before he sprawls back, nearly unconscious and panting in exhaustion.

He lies motionless for a minute, chest rising and falling unsteadily as he stares at the ceiling, until rough hands spread his unresisting legs again. He takes in a sharp breath before realizing that Karkat is cleaning him off with the towel.

"Oh," he says uncertainly, flexing his hands in the remnants of the sheets.

"Come on," Karkat snarls. "I'd offer you the dry spot but you didn't leave one, you thoughtless nooksniffer."

"Mm," Equius answers, gradually realizing that Karkat had pulled out after all; most of the fluid hit only his skin. "This amount-"

"Shut the fuck up," Karkat snaps, "I'm being responsible. You still don't think I get how this works?" His mouth curves down sharply at the edges. "After this I'm through pitying you. Forever. That was disgusting."

"It was," Equius agrees, closing his eyes to avoid looking at Karkat. "And so horribly depra-"

"I swear if you say 'depraved' one more time I'm shoving this fucking towel straight up your nook." He pauses, shuddering. "But you'd probably get off on that. _God_ , you're creepy."

"I shall try to rein it in," Equius murmurs, half-conscious, frustration dissipated. "Despite your lack of station, your leadership was...adequate," he adds, the barest hint of condescension creeping into his voice. "I will rest here when clean."

"Fuck you," Karkat snorts, throwing the towel into the corner. "Asshole."


End file.
